Reports& surveys

A snapshot of the feedback from producers asked in the Commercials 30 survey about their ongoing challenges and concerns for the year ahead

Producing big work for tiny budgets
Whereas in recent years, producers concerns have centred pretty squarely on falling budgets, this year there are far fewer comments from production companies complaining that they are being asked to produce great work for pennies. Not that they’re not, of course, but now producers seem to have accepted that budgets are low and won’t be climbing back up. The concern now is how to deal with those new financial realities without sacrificing quality. "The challenge will be how to balance delivering outstanding creative work with budgets that are financially challenged and supporting our directors and clients in that process,” says one respondent. It's about "constantly having to find new and improved ways to do things quicker and cheaper," says another and "finding a solution to the production/budget issues by shooting in local low budget cost centres," says another.

Making money outside of ads
"Looking into more diversification," is the challenge for many and "thus bringing our creative talents and skillsets to other media and industries outside of the more well trodden television commercials path." As production companies worry about the ill health of the traditional TV spot, the concern is to look around at other areas companies could take their skills to by "exploring different revenue streams" while still "remaining relevant within our core market" because, even though there are lots of new avenues to go down, the concern is also "how to make money out of the new non advertising stuff."

Keeping the creative level high
Whereas a major concern among producers is simply "keeping the directors and the company busy," all are also concerned that their directors should be busy with "creatively inspiring and challenging projects" that will both raise the profile of the directors and the brand of the company. "Keeping up the creative standard of work across all mediums" is the refrain from many as budgets are driven down and creativity comes under threat. Another concern is a long term one - being able to "launch new directors" and "trying to educate the agencies and clients to trust our talent, take chances and pay for long pitches."